Software
Houzz Logo Print
lucky_cloud

Flower coloration

7 years ago

Hey citrus folk,


Question about varieties and coloration of flower buds. Are NZL buds pure white or tinged with purple? Does that vary at all with conditions?


Backstory: I've got a NZL that I got last spring from Stan. It's a bit of an odd shape where several branches come out of one spot and I can't quite figure out where the graft is. Last spring it pushed several new shoots from that same place, and according to advice here, I pruned one of them to allow more room for the others. At that time I grafted the pruned shoot to something else and it took. (Graft 1)


Fast forward 8 months or more, the new shoots that remained were very vigorous and I pruned the top of one, for shape. I cut the pruned twig into two and grafted those as well, and they took too. (Graft 2 and 3)


Graft 1 put out flowers, and they were tinged with purple-pink like my Meyer is. Graft 2 and 3 put out flowers, and they were pure white. Both had a nice citrus smell when up close. Graft 1 and of the other two are onto the same rootstock.


I can't figure out if I've got more than one kind of branch on this tree, and if so, which are NZL. The leaves look the same. A couple branches have a few short thorns, but I know thorns can be variable. I'd really like to figure it out so I can remove the non-NZLs as soon as possible.


Thoughts?



Comments (11)

  • 7 years ago

    I wish you had asked these questions about 2 weeks ago when I had clusters of them all over my tree. lol. I believe they are pure white. I have a new flower bud forming on one of my tips again and it's pure white even when tiny. Another clue is that I noticed that there is a scent, but not a heavy one like a Meyer or many others. For the lack of a better word, it's different. I noticed on a fully formed flower that it looks like it has faint brownish looking freckles which remind me of pores. I will watch the bud grow and get back to you on this thread.

  • 7 years ago

    pictures?


  • 7 years ago
    Hard to photograph under these dumb lights, but here’s the weird area where all the branches originate.
  • 7 years ago
    Two photos of white flowers/buds and a poor pic of a purple tinged bud. The previous purple tinged bud bloomed and fell off already, but it looked similar to a Meyer flower.
  • 7 years ago

    The UCR page for the variety does show some slight purple tinge on the petals: https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/citrus/lemonade.html so who knows!

  • 7 years ago

    My tree has been inside since October. Do you think the lack of exposure to outside sunlight has anything to do with the blossom color? Interesting that mine are white and the photo shows a touch of pink. Whenever I see conflicting information about any of my trees, I wonder if I received the right variety. Mix ups do happen.

  • 7 years ago

    Denise is correct; light intensity and spectrum can change flower coloration. My Meyer lemon will put out mostly white flowers indoors, but if I put them outside, the small flower buds are almost purple in color.

  • 7 years ago
    Interesting. But the various branches of mine are putting out white and purple buds under the same conditions. I guess I should wait and see.
  • 7 years ago
    Ok, here are better photos of the weird graft site. You can see old parafilm in there so I know this is the site. You can kind of see one branch that is woodier than the others that seems to come from what might be a cleft or side graft. I worry that that might be the only part of the scion that is true. It’s just so hard to tell with this shape.
  • 7 years ago

    My NZL has flowered many times but I can't remember the coloration. I can tell you the are just short of odorless.

    Steve

Sponsored
Bella Casa LLC
Average rating: 5 out of 5 stars17 Reviews
The Leading Interior Design Studio in Franklin County